Replacing the B5 tiptronic shifter?

[TheReflex79]

Has anyone had experience replacing the shifter on their B5. My problem is that in tiptronic mode, you have to tap it acouple times to shift it up or down. The stealership let me know that the whole shifter has to be replaced, and it's about an 8 hour job. Just curious if anyone has any insight to this. Thanks in advance. I justr bought the car alittle over 3 months ago from an Audi dealership, and I just want to make sure they aren't stringing me along.

[R4zzleD4zzle]

There is somewhat of a delay from when you click the shifter to the time it takes for it to actually shift gears but if you repeatedly have to keep pressing the shifter after 2-3sec then my guess would be a bad tcm (transmission control module). I bought a new one for my 98 a couple months ago for $200

[zrowcool]

yeah i think they are stringing you along, if you use the buttons on the steering wheel does it shift when its supposed to? if it does then the magnets in the shifter need to be aligned. theres a write up somewhere on it

[R4zzleD4zzle]

His is a 98, I dont think they came that year with the tip tranny buttons on the steering wheels until 99. You have to switch the gears on the shift knob

[TheReflex79]

No buttons on the steering wheel for a 98.5....the dealership is going the easily route by telling me the whole shifter needs to be replaced....but find it hard to believe. Using the shifter, in tip mode, if I want to up-shift, I have to tap it 2-4 times to get it to shift. The only thing that read is that there may be magnets that need to be adjusted. But the dealership simply want to replace the whole shifter, and take alot of cash I'm currently lacking! lol

[zrowcool]

didnt know the steering wheel buttons werent in yet. When my car was tip i had the problem that it would only up-shift if i slammed the shit out of it up. downshifting was no problem. i took it apart using a write up and found one of the magnets had moved out of its place. put it back with some double sided tape and it worked flawlessly. If it works just needs a couple slaps then i would assume its the magnets. dealer just wants to sodomize you.

[audinutt]

No buttons on the steering wheel for a 98.5....the dealership is going the easily route by telling me the whole shifter needs to be replaced....but find it hard to believe. Using the shifter, in tip mode, if I want to up-shift, I have to tap it 2-4 times to get it to shift. The only thing that read is that there may be magnets that need to be adjusted. But the dealership simply want to replace the whole shifter, and take alot of cash I'm currently lacking! lol

Use a vagcom and see what is really happening!
Mine was doing the same thing, i found the magnets were misadjusted and i could just lightly bump it up a hair and it would upshift and work that way.

The problem i had is it would shift once, then i'd have to do it 3-4 times again to get it to respond. The actual cause was that after i pushed it up the 1st time the switch/tcm saw it as i was still just holding it UP so it didn't see that I had released it. I've learned to work around it and actually like it a lot better, try a shorter push rather than all the way to the top of the shift gate if that makes sense.

-richard

[biketsai]

didnt know the steering wheel buttons werent in yet. When my car was tip i had the problem that it would only up-shift if i slammed the shit out of it up. downshifting was no problem. i took it apart using a write up and found one of the magnets had moved out of its place. put it back with some double sided tape and it worked flawlessly. If it works just needs a couple slaps then i would assume its the magnets. dealer just wants to sodomize you.

Can you PM me witht hat write up or tell me where to find it? thanks

[audinutt]

this link might help
http://forums.audiworld.com/a6/msgs/712598.phtml

-richard

[biketsai]

thanks

[TheReflex79]

this link might help
http://forums.audiworld.com/a6/msgs/712598.phtml

-richard

Thanks for the link...so basically this effected the +/- shifting? I'm just trying to narrow this down so I can bring this to the techs that worked on my car, that way I can show that the whole shifter does not need to be replaced. The one thing that does lead me to believe that the magnets may be the problem, is that if it is auto mode in 'D', the shifter will slide over to the tiptronic mode side by itself. I never thought that was a normal thing, so I'm just curious if that maybe a problem of the magnets also, and maynot have been caught by the techs.

[audinutt]

The issue you are describing is a broken spring mechanism there is a repair kit for this as well.

http://forums.audiworld.com/a4/msgs/2392255.phtml

-richard

[TheReflex79]

The issue you are describing is a broken spring mechanism there is a repair kit for this as well.

http://forums.audiworld.com/a4/msgs/2392255.phtml

-richard

So this will fix the 'sliding' of the shifter, could this be part of te issue with the tiptronic, or would that strictly be because of the magnets?

[audinutt]

sounds like you have two issues, but i could be from this.
i went to a junkyard and grabbed extra magnets out of a passat.

-richard

[TheReflex79]

Yeah I'm probably going to have to look into this alittle more, I don't there are any junkyards that I'll be able to get magnets, but I don't mind getting them new as long as it's cheaper then buying the whole shifter and solves the problem.

[zrowcool]

audi might try to ream you on the magnets by saying they sell it as an "assembly" only. it looks like the spring is bad like someone posted above and the magnets are a little off. very simple fix and will run you no more than like 60-70 bucks if you DIY. you can get magnets from someone parting out and the spring also or you can buy that new

[TheReflex79]

I'm definately going to look more into this repair! Thanks for the help....I'll let you how things go with the repair....I just want to be able to use my tiptronic! lol